My Give-A-Damn Clock Is Broken Between The Hours of 12am And 10pm.

Donna puts up with a lot of shit. A Lot.

While she is tough and stands her ground at work and every senior partner knows that if you want to walk away alive from a conversation with her then the word sweetheart should never leave your lips and every sentence should end in please, you can't expect perfection from the start. Even from her.

You first have to teach a dog before they will listen, after all.

It's always the rookies that give her shit. They walk around with a swagger in their step that wasn't there a couple weeks ago, a cat that ate the canary smirk on their face. Always looking down their nose if you didn't have a fancy certificate from Harvard.

So for the first few weeks Donna has to put up with them thinking that because she's an assistant that they can talk to her however they want. When they finally notice that every remark is met with something in their work life going wrong they start to out the pieces together and start behaving with respect.

Pavlovian response and all.

The point is that the respect she gets is not magically there from the first meeting. She has to work for it- expect with Mike. Puppy dog demeanor and all that.

So when Harvey Specter, someone she has worked with for years and had put the fear of Donna into long before Pearson-Hardman, calls her at three o'clock in the morning, you would be understating it to say that she was less than thrilled to hear the reason.

It had been a feet achingly long day, ten hours at work, then she got a tear filled call from her sister, about how she had caught her boyfriend cheating. And after a cab ride, two pints of ice cream, three movies where the wife kills the husband and another cab ride home at twelve in the morning she finally made it into bed, where she planned to stay until late the next morning.

A wailing jolted her from sleep.

She slapped at her alarm clock a few times before it hit her that it was her phone ringing.

Glaring at the phone did nothing to sooth her temper.

"What?!" She snapped.

"Donna, Donna you're up. That'sss great. I need, uh. Um. What'dI'd need again?" her boss' voice slured.

"Are you drunk? I know you did not call me drunk at- 3:19 in the morning Harvey Scepter." She said scowling.

"What? 'm not drunk. 've only had a glass." In the background she heard the clanking of a bottle, before drunken giggles echoed in her receiver.

"Hey Donna" Giggle" Does- does it still count as a glass if the bottle that's empty is made of glass? I think it does. That sounds right."

Squeezing her eyes closed she forced out a breath, she needed to see if she would have to go pick his ass up and do damage control or not and she couldn't go that if she hung up.

"Harvey?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are you?"

"On the floor."

"On the floor where, Harvey?" Losing patience her teeth ground together as she spat the words out.

"My apartment, where else? Are you sure you're not the one that drank a bottle of scotch?"

"Then why, may I ask are you calling me in the middle of the night?!" With out meaning to the last bit of the question came out in a shout, frustration coursing through her.

"Oh yeah, I need you to set up an appointment at a jewler. And order some flowers ooooh do you think he'll like gold or silver, because he seems like more of a classic gold man to be but I'd really like to see him is silver and-"

"Harvey!" Donna cut him off , "Who are you talking about?"

"Mike who else? Who else do you think I would buy a ring for?"

She decided to point out that he had never talked about giving Mike a ring before because while she knew he liked the associate the never talked about it.

"Harvey, honey, why are you planning to buy Mike a ring?" Donna asked as patiently as she could. She was tired and frustrated but she did care for her boss and this seemed like something that might not end well if she just hung up.

Harvey scoffed into the phone. "I'm going to ask him to marry me duh. Donna are you sure that you're not drunk because you're not catching on as quickly as usual."

The sound of flesh hitting flesh sounded through her room as her palm made contact with face.

Her boss was so drunk he was going to try to propose to Mike

. "Yeah I'm sure." She answered, "Harvey I think there might be a flaw in your plan."

"What'd'ya mean I've got everything covered. Flowers, date, ring, everything!"

Donna felt sleepiness creepy back up on her but no matter how much she wanted she could hang up on him without making sure he wouldn't do something stupid. And this definitely counted as stupid.

"Harvey, listen. You're forgetting the most important thing."

"What?"

"You and Mike have never been on a date."

"Huh?"

"You have to at least take the kid on a few dates before you pop the question. It would be scandalous not to." She told him, patiently.

"What? Why? He's already mine. He knows that."

"He's your associate, Harvey. Not your boyfriend, you would actually have to have a conversation about feelings with him for that to happen."

"But...He's mine Donna." Was whined in her ear.

One thing she had learned in the years of working for Harvey Scepter is that he turns into a five year old after four glasses of scotch. All impulsive moves and possessiveness.

"Sure he is," Donna said patronizingly. "But maybe you should talk to him tomorrow about how he's yours and maybe set up a date while you're at it."

"Yeah"

"Okay was that all you needed?"

"I think so."

"Okay good night Harvey." She said going to hit the off button.

"Wait!"

Huffing she put the phone back to her ear.

"What?" She snapped patient running out.

"Where should I take him?"

"I'm going to put this as nicely as I can but My Give-A-Damn Clock Is Broken Between The Hours of 12am And 10pm. And you've already used up the emergency minutes so if you want to talk about this anymore it'll have to wait till tomorrow." With that she hung up one him and slammed the phone into the cradle.

Tomorrow she would make fun of him for trying to propose to Mike without even dating first but right now its between the hours of 12 and 10 and it could wait.